BARON_CORBIN BOOKER_T BRUCE_PRICHARD DREW_MCINTYRE DVON_DUDLEY FREDDIE_PRINZE_JR JBL JERRY_LAWLER JIM_ROSS MANKIND MICHAEL_HAYES NATALYA PAUL_BEARER SAM_ROBERTS TERRY_FUNK UNDERTAKER UNDERTAKER Mankind and the Undertaker are battling for control of the dark side MANKIND The only way Mankind could take on the Undertaker was to have a really dark soul UNDERTAKER There was only one way to go with That was violence UNDERTAKER They were put on this earth to fight each other DREW MCINTYRE It's different It's gritty I loved it UNDERTAKER You're going to get buried alive and you're like with dirt? Mick and I took years off each others careers MANKIND You have to admire my spunk UNDERTAKER The Mankind Undertaker story I think that lives forever FREDDIE PRINZE JR When two legends collide, their rivalry stays pinned in our minds forever This is where we break down the legendary stories behind the greatest rivalries of all time I'm Freddie Prinze Jr and this is WWE Rivals FREDDIE PRINZE JR This is one of my favorite rivalries Undertaker And Mankind The types of matches they had were so different, so unique, and so crazy This rivalry, as far as the extremity of it, can never be topped DVON DUDLEY You got Taker who's dead You know, you have, FREDDIE PRINZE JR Literally they call him the dead man DVON DUDLEY You know, you have Mick Foley who's crazier than crazy I mean, you can't get any crazier than Mick Foley FREDDIE PRINZE JR Let's talk about Undertaker in , just before Mankind comes over in ' JBL I've never seen anybody that had more respect in any business anywhere There was one constant that was Undertaker always He was the barometer FREDDIE PRINZE JR I want to switch over to Mankind Paint a picture of what kind of wrestler Mankind was BOOKER T Legitimate He brought a pain tolerance like no other man that I've been around That's why coming into the WWE and facing the Undertaker, it was as real as it possibly could be UNDERTAKER Mick was a different kind of cat UNDERTAKER The man's got a really gentle nature about him UNDERTAKER He just kind of brings an energy to a room that you enjoy being around And then you go out to the arena, and he turns into a complete lunatic MANKIND I rode with Mark Calaway before he was the Undertaker When we were together in WCW, I split rooms with Mark Calloway I stayed at Mark Calloway's parents� house, but this guy who showed up at Survivor Series, this was The Undertaker MANKIND I'm watching the pay-per-view and I very much realize that this is on a certain level, the same guy that I drove with and split rooms with But on another level, he's a completely different guy BARON CORBIN The almost white face as a child, as a child I watched that And there was a genuine fear to that character for kids PAUL BEARER Oh yes That's my Undertaker putting some final touches on your coffin UNDERTAKER It really became apparent to me early on that Undertaker and Mark Calaway, they were going to somehow have to become the same person Mark Calaway got put way, way back on the back shelf, and the Undertaker is what most people most of the time saw MANKIND For five or six years running, Undertaker had beaten guys who were even taller than him Bigger than him UNDERTAKER People just expected me to just mow through everybody MANKIND Somehow he became this iconic good guy SAM ROBERTS The Undertaker had been a character that conquered monsters What if we had somebody that while maybe they weren't quite as big as the Undertaker, was nuts and didn't care? MANKIND Part of what I brought to the game was this reputation for wildness JIM ROSS Kept pitching and pitching Mick to Vince So I told Vince, I said, Hey, look, if nothing else, we bring Foley in, we give him a shot I talked to the Undertaker He knows him He likes him Once Vince saw Mick and the Undertaker do their thing, he would like it Secondly, once Vince got to know Mick on an individual basis, he would love the guy MANKIND I didn't know at the time that Mr McMahon had not been a big fan of mine Jim Ross was pushing for me Mr McMahon slammed his hand down on the table, said, All right, I'll bring him in, but I'm covering up his face So when Jim Ross tells me this is how you're starting, I realized you only have one chance to make a first impression Yeah MANKIND When I debuted in as Mankind, that character was kind of a tortured soul MANKIND I wanted to be a darker character because I felt like the only way this Mankind creation could feasibly take on the Undertaker was to have a really dark soul BOOKER T From a storytelling perspective, Mick Foley is borderline genius MANKIND April st, , the day after WrestleMania UNDERTAKER You have one character in The Undertaker who dishes out a lot of pain to people and he gets, you know, that's his calling card And then now you have this character who just thrives on it FREDDIE PRINZE JR Mankind's debut, we have one person at the table here who had a very unique perspective on this, because you happen to be in the ring with the man he was about to have this rivalry with JBL Yeah, I just I just remember when he came out, I just remember rolling to the floor and thought, okay, there's a bunch of carnage about to happen I'm just going to get out of the way MANKIND I'm coming hot out of the gate with the Undertaker Like, I'm not waiting in line And I attack the biggest dog in the yard UNDERTAKER Now you have this crazy character going against this monster babyface And I think it was just I want to say a match made in heaven I think it was more of a match made in hell NATALYA Getting in there and debuting in WWE with the Undertaker? That is the ultimate pressure BOOKER T Someone like Mankind coming in and being just as diabolical, maybe even more so than the Undertaker UNDERTAKER Now we have two characters that have no parameters There was only one way to go with it And that was That was violence MICHAEL HAYES If the Undertaker got a chance He was going to go for it And Foley gave him that chance MICHAEL HAYES And after their first match, they had a lot of trust for each other FREDDIE PRINZE JR How do you tell a story between two supernatural type characters? You can't just have a regular match So we have the boiler room brawl BRUCE PRICHARD Mankind basically lived in a boiler room with his pet rat, George That was his home That's where Mankind felt at home So the idea to have a match in Mankind's environment was unique SAM ROBERTS The way this match works is that both superstars start the match in the boiler room They have to fight all the way through the arena, get to ringside, and obtain the Undertaker's powerful urn from Paul Bearer's hands BRUCE PRICHARD We actually had to record the boiler room brawl the night before SummerSlam BRUCE PRICHARD Being able to record it in advance took away a lot of that risk where if something didn't go exactly as we wanted it to go, we could stop it down and shoot in a different way MICHAEL HAYES Boiler room brawl I was there when we recorded it That was brutal, man And that was just all out war UNDERTAKER Gund Arena in Cleveland Filthy dirt everywhere, dust everywhere Anything that wasn't tied down, you were probably going to get hit with MANKIND The boiler room brawl allows me to utilize everything around me So I thought, here's something that can highlight the things that I can do Everything that happened in that match It's real I climb up that ladder I know there's some cardboard boxes that I'm hoping are going to break my fall They do to some extent, but half my body doesn't land on those boxes Right I under shoot it just a little bit UNDERTAKER I think Mick and I took years off each other's careers MANKIND Potato in wrestling speak is a really stiff blow above and beyond what we usually deliver And sometimes in our urgency to have a great match, we might serve up a couple of potatoes UNDERTAKER We get to the point where we'll pick up from here tomorrow at the pay-per-view I remember getting a cut on my elbow They have a doctor there and they said, hey, you want me to sew that up? And I was like, No, I can't sew it up, it's got to be open tomorrow or it's not going to you know, it's not going to match up, you know, where how in the world did I get stitches and in between this and this? UNDERTAKER I remember walking backstage on the actual day of the event Terri Runnels was walking behind me and she goes, Do you know that every time that your arm bends, there's blood shooting out of your elbow? So I'm walking down the hall and every time my arm would come down, it's just shooting out of my arm JBL Taker, he actually had to re-bust open his elbow to create some continuity I mean, it was a big deal It was Wow Pretty remarkable thing that he did BRUCE PRICHARD (boiler room brawl resumes in backstage hallway of arena) We were able to have the performers make their way out to the arena and finish the match in front of a live audience MANKIND I had to come up with something because we were both so beaten up and worn out from the boiler room brawl the night before And now we have to like magically appear backstage and brawl in a meaningful way MANKIND You use your surroundings I see a coffee machine Sorry You know, you apologize ahead of time UNDERTAKER There just happened to be a big pot of coffee He saw it He grabbed it MANKIND No one had scalding coffee on their bingo card, but guys got to do what a guy's going to do when he's up against the phenom MANKIND But you didn't just have to get out of the boiler room into the ring You had to claim ownership of the urn MANKIND Oh man, nobody thought Paul Bearer would ever turn on the Undertaker NATALYA People were pissed, they were upset NATALYA Paul Bearer was like, Undertaker's dad I mean, he represented a father figure to the audience And when you think about father figure, you think about trust, you think about respect, you think about loyalty So when the audience feels betrayed, it really ignites an emotional reaction UNDERTAKER There's a legitimate chance that you're going to see the end of the Undertaker FREDDIE PRINZE JR They told a very cinematic story with this image Had you ever seen anything like this before where, DVON DUDLEY No The company was doing things that had never been done before And it definitely worked because we're talking about it years later SAM ROBERTS You get to a spot with characters where they're so rich, you almost need to invent new ways for them to battle That's what happened with the Undertaker and Mankind A new match was created just for them, called the Buried Alive Match, and they explained, Well, there's going to be a grave plot with a six foot hole And in order to win the match, you have to put your opponent in the grave and bury them alive UNDERTAKER Well, you know, when you say, yeah, you're going to get buried alive, you're like, with dirt? FREDDIE PRINZE JR This is the first time a match like this has happened, and it's a constant flirtation with death FREDDIE PRINZE JR If you die, you lose It's basically the stipulation And I remember even Vince going, this is an unsanctioned match FREDDIE PRINZE JR And whoever was on the other mic goes, well yeah, obviously Because there's no way this could happen MANKIND It's this matchup that presents all of these opportunities because whatever we're doing in and around the ring is just a pretense to get us up there to the grave UNDERTAKER These two evil entities are battling for control of the dark side and to tell the story that needs to be told with these two guys UNDERTAKER You're going to have to do something that is desperate and, you know, it's just like Hail Mary DVON DUDLEY It kind of reminds me of watching a Friday the th with Jason FREDDIE PRINZE JR I was going to say that DVON DUDLEY And Michael Myers because whenever they would get hit, you know, it was always that moment you thought they were down and dead and all of a sudden they rise up like, oh, shit, run, you know, get out the way Don't stand there He's not dead MANKIND I end up getting chokeslammed into a grave, and then the earth starts coming down on top of me I'm tired I'm exhausted I've been through a lot And now a human being is throwing earth on me MANKIND And you have people thinking to themselves, surely nobody's getting buried in front of our eyes Terry Gordy comes out as the executioner He waylays the Undertaker Now begins this mammoth attempt to completely fill that grave in a few minutes without any machinery BRUCE PRICHARD The real story is there was a miscalculation of how long it would take to fill up the hole once Undertaker was in there So we had to send out half the roster JBL We rush out there with shovels to fill up a full grave Try filling in a grave with a shovel in minutes on live television That was the dumbest thing We didn't a quarter we didn't get a quarter of the grave filled Mick Foley's, you know, scraping dirt in and he's blown up from the match But if you'd have seen the crowd that night, it was horror and shock thinking that Undertaker had actually been killed People were buying it And I'm thinking somebody's coming over this rail PAUL BEARER The Undertaker's gone forever Yes! UNDERTAKER There are people to this day that were kids then that are adults now Like, you don't know what that did to me I mean, that was, I was freaked out, like I had to sleep with the lights on for a while MANKIND I remember looking at the face of a father and he says, I can't believe I'm watching this because we're watching a human being get buried UNDERTAKER When that purple glove come out of the dirt, man It was another one of those moments that just people did not expect, but gave them such hope UNDERTAKER It's those kind of stories that let you know that what you do means something UNDERTAKER We've had these incredible wars Mankind and Undertaker PAUL BEARER Oh yes The Undertaker's gone forever Yes, he's gone forever UNDERTAKER And I haven't fared that great FREDDIE PRINZE JR And we get this lightning strike and the whole crowd gasps His hand busts through, still gloved and were left with that lasting image DVON DUDLEY It actually worked because you had the right ingredients to make it work JBL All that's important is the setup for what's coming next BOOKER T To get to the match that you remember JBL That's right That's right Because you're setting up something great BOOKER T Yes FREDDIE PRINZE JR What we had to wait for was the second Hell in a Cell match ever BRUCE PRICHARD A Hell in a Cell match is a match in which you compete inside of a ring that is completely covered by a solid steel cage The structure itself is intimidating The first Hell in a Cell match, they were looking to do something spectacular and Mankind was looking to, I've got to do something bigger MANKIND I had a lot of concerns going into that Hell in a Cell match with the Undertaker MANKIND The challenge for me was not trying to reach the bar that Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker had set in October of It was to just do some kind of justice to it Terry Funk and I visit the WWE offices We watched the first cell match in its entirety After about a minute of odd silence, I said to Terry, I said, what am I going to do? And then he starts to laugh and he starts riffing about being thrown off the top of the cell And he keeps laughing And I look at him and I said, I think I can do that And every day I would approach the Undertaker with the idea of starting the match on top of the cell And every single day he shot it down UNDERTAKER And he persisted You know, he really wanted to take that bump because he felt like it needed it And I end up asking, like Mick, why do you want to kill yourself? And it was it was a serious moment And it got to the point I think it was the day of and I was a firm no And somehow he got to Vince and convinced Vince that it was okay and then they double team me Vince is like Mark, he's pretty sure that he can He's pretty sure that he can take that bump I'm like no, I don't I don't think we need And they kept on and like, look, fine If that's what you want to do, then we'll do it MANKIND We know we got some fireworks We know we're going to do something no one's ever thought to do before The Undertaker has a broken foot We think the worst part of his night physically is going to be that journey up to the top of the cell UNDERTAKER I can see myself standing there watching him fall He ain't getting up from this And I'm thinking in my head, just move Mick Move MANKIND You know, when he grabs me by the collar and waistband BAM off I go Like that flight didn't seem like it was ever going to end BOOKER T Mankind went off the cage Everybody in the arena, I no doubt would think they would have thought that this thing's over When we really put that in perspective, Mankind could have died that day, right? Yeah Oh, yeah Yeah This was a guy that was willing to die in the middle of that ring to go out there and get his point across JIM ROSS It was so surreal that I thought that maybe I was having, like, an aneurysm or something JIM ROSS You know I wasn't really seeing what I was seeing I certainly felt that he was dead JIM ROSS He was falling through a wood table that was sitting on a concrete floor There was no padding under the table It was Foley's body hitting wood, hitting concrete So in my mind's eye, I'm thinking an average human being cannot live through that ordeal And obviously Mick Foley was far from being an average human being JERRY LAWLER (crowd screams) He landed through the table right at my feet and I'm looking down at him And he opened his eyes and he smiled UNDERTAKER And then he started moving around and I'm like that's the toughest son of a bitch right there I've ever seen in my life MANKIND The Undertaker is a legend, right? The biggest Probably the biggest in our business But I'll admit that when I was lying underneath the wreckage of that table and half my body was sticking out into the crowd, and they were chanting the Undertaker's name, there was part of me thinking, maybe you guys are cheering for the wrong guy JIM ROSS So now I'm thinking, boy, we're really screwed because this is early in the match I mean, really early How in the hell are we going to finish? JIM ROSS And lo and behold, somehow, Mick, knowing that he's got to deliver for this audience and for the Undertaker, he wheels himself back into this match And that's what it was UNDERTAKER That sucker, man He got off of that gurney He started back up this up the cell Good night MANKIND When I start climbing up and the fans in the civic arena realize this thing is not over They respond with a type of energy that could've lit that city up for a week I just get the goosebumps thinking of it MANKIND I've suffered a lot from that fall So when I get up to the top, I don't have much left in the tank And I'm thinking in my head, at least the worst part of my life is over I would stand corrected because things are about to get a lot worse UNDERTAKER When Mick hit that panel and the panel just broke away and it was such a It was just such a violent And a whole I mean, just a whole nother level of violent bump that he took He rotates another few inches, he don't get up MANKIND That one night, for whatever reason, my feet never left It's a godsend they did not, because when I hit that mesh and it just chhh like a hot knife through butter (crowd cheers) MANKIND There was a chair up on top of that cell structure that I had the wisdom and foresight to bring up there with me And when the Undertaker chokeslammed me and I go through, that chair follows me down Every foot of the way smashing into my face To this day, still missing those teeth and one of them ends up lodged in my nostril TERRY FUNK I just knew he was through And I looked at him and looked down at him I said, turn around The referee said, He's out He's gone It's over He's not going to get up I was scared to death MANKIND The ring fills up with people to check on me Well, it looks like Terry haphazardly touching my face Wasn't just touching my face, he was taking my pulse He stands up and says to the Undertaker, he's still breathing MANKIND I roll over to my stomach and my head goes like this The reason my head bobbed is because my first conscious thought was, where'd their shoes come from? JIM ROSS He's got a tooth in his nose He's kind of got a perverse smile on his face Like he's not dead yet You may think I'm not but I'm not done UNDERTAKER I'm punching him and trying to create time so that he can get his thoughts back together again And every time I hit him, I'm just saying Just Mick, stay down Just stay down I went into the match with a broken ankleYou know, I'm questioning my manhood, like, right Like I ain't saying shit about my ankle after this BOOKER T To watch Mankind and the Undertaker create that magic It's such a dangerous situation to have that on your mind and still be able to perform at the highest level That's what's true pros do That's what professionals do MANKIND Just the spectacle of trying to watch two human beings limp over the finish line By God, we didn't cut the match short MANKIND The Undertaker He's got that He had that long mane dark red hair He leaned over and he said the words, Go home UNDERTAKER He has to finish He has to get to the tacks MANKIND Some of the things that seem like good ideas at the time, have not aged well MANKIND But I think you have to admire my spunk FREDDIE PRINZE JR They weren't even done yet because oh, yeah it's Mick Foley So let's bring in thumbtacks UNDERTAKER I'm trying to reason with a man who's just cheated death twice Mick, we're good Just stay down I got to get to the tacks, brother I think we don't need the tacks man We don't need the tacks We got to the tacks He didn't like the way the tacks worked the first time, we did it twice MANKIND Referee Mike Chioda He wasn't the match referee, but he came out and he said, we're bringing a stretcher out for you And I asked him this question I say, Have I already been on a stretcher tonight? And he informed me that I had and I just said, I can't be on two stretchers in one night UNDERTAKER I mean, that tells you everything you need to know about Mick Foley, the sports entertainer (crowd cheering clip) He was willing to put it all on the line so that he could have that match that he wanted He wanted it for me and he wanted it for the fans He's always been like that That match That's just next level stuff that that most people don't have inside them It really is incredible FREDDIE PRINZE JR It's a beautiful art of violence That level of sacrifice, commitment, is something that I think will forever be remembered by the fans and why those two men will forever be respected BOOKER T We didn't watch it We believed it MANKIND You know, I had a hard time dealing with the aftermath of the cell I'm talking about for years to follow, nothing I would ever do from that moment on would make fans forget how we had made them feel in that moment of time I could get pretty cantankerous about it MANKIND Every day I'm asked about the same match, the same question, did it hurt? And I was tired of it And it wasn't until the Undertaker came to see me doing one of my storytelling shows, and he said these words to me He said, You know, Jack, what you and I did that night will outlive us both People will be talking about that match when we're both dead and gone And when I drove home that night, I felt like a giant weight had been lifted off my shoulders because I felt free to embrace it And free to celebrate it And free to talk about it MANKIND Over the years, I have often been aware of how my life would have gone had the Undertaker and I not crossed paths when we did in April of I'm not in the WWE Hall of Fame without the Undertaker I'm not in a position where I can continue to wear sweatpants and a fanny pack in public I'm not in a position where I can be a guy with one ear who doesn't care what other people think about him I look back at that moment in time, and I'm just so grateful (HIAC flashback clip) That our lives were entwined UNDERTAKER Very rarely do we talk business It's a more of a how are you? How is the family? How are you feeling? We have our history No one's going to take that away and we have a very prominent piece of history in the WWE legacy The story of Undertaker and Mankind I mean, it'll last the annals of time UNDERTAKER And I don't say that to boast, but it is what it is I mean, it's a great story that was told by two guys that are still here to tell it